Boy, 11, shot in Englewood neighborhood

Police investigate the scene by the train tracks at 59th and South Stewart Avenue after an 11-year-old boy was shot in the back in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood.

Police investigate the scene by the train tracks at 59th and South Stewart Avenue after an 11-year-old boy was shot in the back in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

Jeremy GornerTribune reporter

An 11-year-old boy was shot in the upper body this afternoon in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, police said.

The boy was shot near West 59th Street and South Stewart Avenue about 4 p.m., police said.

He was walking with his brother along with three other people when two males wearing bandanas fired on them before fleeing, police said.

The boy was wounded in the upper body, but it's unclear whether he was the intended target, police said, citing preliminary reports.

Patricia Island, said her grandson, Tyshaun Grant, was with his little brother and their friends looking for snakes on the railroad tracks when the shots rang out. She said Tyshaun, who attends Nicholson Technology Academy in Englewood, needs a blood transfusion.

“I don’t understand why people would want to do something like this. He’s just a typical child,” Island said angrily to reporters outside the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. “That ain’t nothing but an 11-year-old child trying to have fun on a nice day.”

The wounded boy enjoys football and basketball, and one of his favorite athletes is NBA superstar LeBron James, according to Larry Price, the boy's uncle.

Price said Tyshaun has taken a liking to video games, with NBA 2K12 being among his favorites on the XBox 360. His uncle said Tyshaun has three other siblings, an older sister and brother, and a younger brother.

"I love him," the 30-year-old Price said calmly of his wounded nephew from the boy's Englewood home. "He's my nephew. We play basketball together. We watch the Bulls."

Shortly after the shooting, Price said he spoke with his sister, the boy's mother, who is at Tyshaun's side at Comer Children's Hospital this evening. The boy's condition has stabilized, Price said.

"She's not grieving," Price said of his sister.

Price said he doesn't know why his nephew was shot or where he was walking. Price also noted there's a war going on in Englewood and he believes Tyshaun just "got caught up in it walking with his friends."

Price said his nephew is not involved in gangs.

"Adults, we be the main people that get shot," Price said. "He's just a boy.

"I don't care what time of day it is...This is a bad neighborhood."

Investigators had briefly walked up a hill leading to two bridges one of which has a set of railroad tracks at 59th and Stewart. A few casing-markers could be seen at the bottom of the hill at the street-level.

Englewood District Cmdr. Leo Schmitz said the victim was walking up the hill when shots rang out from the bottom of it. He said the shooter was with one other person.

Various members of the police department's command staff along with roughly a dozen other officers were on the scene.